Hello folks :) Miss us?

You guys are spoiled! We have been in the internet cafe everyday this week, sometimes more than once! Don't get used to it, we have been here a week and we are definitely heading out on the road tomorrow! We are missing the mobile lifestyle. We even washed the bikes this afternoon so they are all shiny and ready to ride! That said, we have really enjoyed our time here, and who knows, we may come back for a longer stay.

One of the hecklers from our peanut gallery :):):) has asked us to expand on our experiences with the toilet facilities of India. Here goes....

All of our accomodation has included a western style toilet - it's not because we ask, it's just what we get. And we are staying at the kind of places that Lonely Planet/Rough Guide/Footprint class as "budget" establishments - we are not staying at the posh places! I am sure that this will not be the case by the end of our journey, but who knows. That is not to say that they flush any better than they do in the UK - I have fixed 2 or 3 toilets on our journey :) As for cleanliness, we have only had 3 bathrooms where we didn't want to spend any more time in them than the time required to use the loo. Showers have been hit and miss and we are really liking the hot bucket of water bath :) The biggest problem that we have with toilets in our accomodation has nothing to do with the facilities - the mozzies are vicious in some places and time in the bathroom often requires defending the more tender parts of your anatomy from the biting beasts.

Toilet facilities on the road have been WAY more variable!!!! We almost always encounter squat toilets in the restaurants (we stop at restaurants for loo breaks while out on the road). We have had some very decent experiences and we have had some really unpleasant ones, too (A is very delicate in this matter....it's good that we wear our Buffs while riding as they provide a handy mask when it's needed :) Don't forget to bring your own paper! Every restaurant provides handwash facilities (for the Muslim customers... and anyone else that would like to avail themselves of this feature) so keeping clean is not a problem at all. One other detail - all loos have either a hose (the nicer establishments) or a bucket of water and a cup for those that do not use paper :) The bucket/cup is also used for flushing the squat toilets when there is no automatic flush.

If anyone has any other things that you want to know...just email us. The address is right there in the sidebar :)

We have been in Kodai for over a week, we only intended to stay a couple of days! The opportunity to visit the creches and then the media attention has added to our stay. Yesterday we had an early start when we hooked up with the woman that runs the Betsy Elizabeth foundation (help-kids-india.org) for her rounds of the creches. The kids are all 2 1/2 to 5 years old - pre-school age. They come from the area surrounding the Dalit village, up to a 3 km radius. Dalits are people below the lowest Hindu caste, aka "the untouchables". Before a creche is started the local area is surveyed (door to door visit) to see where the need is. It is a place for the kids to spend their day while their mothers are off working (which is often a hand to mouth experience - if they don't work they might not eat that day). The kids are dropped off early (by the parent on their way to work) so the morning snack that the child receives at the creche is breakfast. Then there are lessons (health/hygene and educational) and playtime (some of these kids are already learning to write!) and then lunch. You should see these kids chow down - it's often the best meal of their day, if not their only meal (not including the snack when in the morning and one before they go home). After lunch is a long nap - some of the kids don't get much sleep at home. And then the kids will play more and have another snack and go home.

We headed to the first one with open eyes. Our experience in the first 2 creches was fairly similar - give me a ball and a room full of kids (30-35 kids) and we are going to have some fun! :) The kids are so adorable, and seeing their faces go from shy and reserved to a huge smile is priceless! Kids will be kids and they were well up for it :) We also looked around the facilities (which were spotlessly clean!) and the surrounding area, we were even able to see inside a local house to see a product of one of the other projects of the foundation - the smokeless stove. Most houses had a stove but there was no chimney, so the houses were very smoky and children were dying because of it. The new stoves are made by a local potter and they are installed in the houses for free (the stove and the installation is paid for by donations). You can read all about this on their website :)

We spent several hours at the third (and largest) creche. We got to play with the kids (remember Duck Duck Goose??? :) and then we had lunch with them. No, I did not have a nap, too :) Afterwards we spent quite a lot of time talking with the teachers and the 3 women from the foundation. Now is where we get into the problems that has A in an emotional knot. The situation of women at this level is dire - we were told that in this area 5 women a month commit suicide. We got a whole range of horror stories (women being lit on fire by their husbands in front of their children...yes, that level of scariness) and saw the damage inflicted on some of the teachers when they had been attacked the day before by a drunk man that came to the school. Really unpleasant stuff. In addition to that, the woman that runs the foundation spent a considerable amount of effort making people involved in the program understand how unacceptable it is to have raw sewage flowing by in the channel right in front of the school. It was a really great day, very eye opening. There are these sorts of problems all over India, but not in all walks of life. It is really wonderful to see people that are committed to helping out, and in this case they are doing it (in my opinion) the right way - by asking the people that need help what sort of help they need and not telling them what's good for them. They are also doing it without forcing religon on anyone, which would really limit things in this place of strong religious beliefs - the poster of Jesus is side by side with Ganesh :)

So, that should keep you all going for awhile, you probably need a break from us :) We are doing as I said before - Madurai, Tanjore, Pondicherrry (for croissants!), Mammallapuram, Madras (for the Enfied Factory) and then on to Bangalore and Hampi. It will be a few days until you hear from us, so don't worry. When A gets it all square in her mind she will let you know. I still owe you Munnar and the Western Ghats, you will have to be patient.

Catch you all later!!!!